Georgia-Pacific has acquired a 2.8m-wide (110in) HP PageWide T1190 digital corrugated press, which will be used to increase the digital print capacity at Hummingbird.
Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are manufacturers and marketers of a variety of fibre-based products, nonwoven fabrics, building products and related chemicals. Georgia-Pacific’s Hummingbird operation provides a range of digitally printed corrugated packaging for consumer packaged goods (CPG), electronics, and food and beverage brands across North America. Its digital offerings include corrugated shelf-ready packaging (SRP), food trays, large format boxes, e-commerce options, and volume displays (POP).
Hummingbird is the only packaging supplier in North America to offer 110in-wide web-fed digital inkjet printing
The HP PageWide T1190 will be the converter’s third inkjet web press installed since 2015, when it launched digital print services with the HP T400S and subsequently added an HP T1100. The new press will be installed later this year at a new Hummingbird site opening in Arizona.
Robert Seay, vice president, digital print solutions at Georgia-Pacific, said, ‘Our brand and trade converting partners can now reduce their printed packaging inventory levels, shorten turnaround time, make frequent design changes and offer more graphic versions.
‘With our continued investment and network of operations in 30 US states, we have unparalleled digital print capacity with a national printing footprint to provide efficiency and redundancy that can fundamentally transform brands’ corrugated supply chain across North America.’
Carles Farre, vice president and general manager, HP PageWide Industrial, commented, ‘Georgia-Pacific’s continued investment in digital print positions Hummingbird will enhance brands’ supply chain efficiency with easier inventory management and quick turnaround.’
The HP PageWide T1190 digital pre-print press is a six-color (CMYK+OV) inkjet press with a 2.8m web width that efficiently aligns with corrugator capacity and provides offset print quality, unmatched digital speed, economy, and flexibility. The press uses HP A30 true water-based inks. With a throughput of up 305m of corrugated liner per minute, up to 100 million corrugated boxes per year can be delivered.
Citing statistics and market analysis from Smithers, HP noted that the worldwide volume of inkjet corrugated packaging grew by more than 20% in 2020 compared with 2019, even with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In many cases, the coronavirus pandemic was a facilitator for this growth, as e-commerce boomed in light of national lockdowns and stay-in-place orders.
Mr Farre continued, ‘HP digital corrugated printing solutions are gaining worldwide traction with an accelerated pace of customer installations, enabling converters to run digital operating models based on fast speed-to-market and sustainability advantages.’
